usr.sbin/user/useradd.8

.\" $NetBSD: useradd.8,v 1.18 2002/06/01 09:21:21 wiz Exp $ */
.\"
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1999 Alistair G. Crooks.  All rights reserved.
.\"
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.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
.\"	This product includes software developed by Alistair G. Crooks.
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.Dd September 5, 2001
.Dt USERADD 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm useradd
.Nd add a user to the system
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm ""
.Fl D
.Op Fl b Ar base-dir
.Op Fl e Ar expiry-time
.Op Fl f Ar inactive-time
.Oo
.Fl g Ar gid | name | Li =uid Oc
.Op Fl L Ar login-class
.Oo
.Op Fl k Ar skel-dir
.Fl r Ar low Ns Li .. Ns Ar high
.Oc
.Op Fl s Ar shell
.Nm ""
.Op Fl mov
.Op Fl G Ar secondary-group
.Op Fl b Ar base-dir
.Op Fl c Ar comment
.Op Fl d Ar home-dir
.Op Fl e Ar expiry-time
.Op Fl f Ar inactive-time
.Oo
.Fl g Ar gid | name | Li =uid Oc
.Op Fl k Ar skel-dir
.Op Fl L Ar login-class
.Op Fl p Ar password
.Oo
.Fl r Ar low Ns Li .. Ns Ar high
.Oc
.Op Fl s Ar shell
.Op Fl u Ar uid
.Ar user
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm useradd
utility adds a user to the system, creating and
populating a home directory if necessary.
Any skeleton files will be provided
for the new user if they exist in the
.Pa /etc/skel
directory.
Default values for
the base directory,
the time of password expiry,
seconds until password change,
primary group,
the skeleton directory,
the range from which the uid will be allocated,
and default login shell
can be provided in the
.Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf
file.
.Pp
The first format of the command shown above (utilising the
.Fl D
option)
sets and displays the defaults for the
.Nm
utility.
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl D
without any further options,
.Fl D
will show the current defaults which
will be used by the
.Nm
utility. Together with one of the options shown for the first version
of the command,
.Fl D
will set the default to be the new value. See
.Xr usermgmt.conf 5
for more information.
.It Fl b Ar base-dir
sets the default base directory. This is the directory to which the
user directory is added, which will be created if the
.Fl m
option is specified and no
.Fl d
option is specified.
.It Fl e Ar expiry-time
sets the default time at which the current password will expire for new
users.
It should be entered in the form
.Dq month day year ,
where month is the month name (the first three characters are
sufficient), day is the day of the month, and year is the year. Time
in seconds since the epoch (UTC) is also valid.
A value of 0 can be used to disable this feature.
.It Fl f Ar inactive-time
sets the default time at which new user accounts will expire.
Also see the
.Fl e
option above.
.It Fl g Ar gid | groupname | Li =uid
sets the default group for new users.
.It Fl k Ar skel-dir
sets the skeleton directory in which to find files with
which to populate new users' home directories.
.It Fl L Ar login-class
sets the default login class for new users.
See
.Xr login.conf 5
for more information on user login classes.
.It Xo
.Fl r Ar low Ns Li .. Ns Ar high
.Xc
sets the low and high bounds of uid ranges for new users. A new user
can only be created if there are uids which can be assigned from one
of the free ranges.
.It Fl s Ar shell
sets the default login shell for new users.
.El
.Pp
In the second form of the command,
after setting any defaults, and then values from that file,
the command line options are processed:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl G Ar secondary-group
is the secondary group to which the user will be added in the
.Pa /etc/group
file.
.It Fl b Ar base-directory
is the base directory name, in which the user's new home
directory will be created, should the -m option be specified.
.It Fl c Ar comment
is the comment field (also, for historical reasons known as the
GECOS field) which will be added for the user, and typically will include
the username, and, perhaps, contact information for the user.
.It Fl d Ar home-directory
is the home directory which will be created and populated for the user,
should the -m option be specified.
.It Fl e Ar expiry-time
sets the default time at which the current password will expire for new
users.
It should be entered in the form
.Dq month day year ,
where month is the month name (the first three characters are
sufficient), day is the day of the month, and year is the year. Time
in seconds since the epoch (UTC) is also valid.
A value of 0 can be used to disable this feature.
See
.Xr passwd 5
for more details.
.It Fl g Ar gid | name | Li =uid
gives the group name or identifier to be used for the new user's primary group.
If this is
.Ql =uid ,
then a uid and gid will be picked which are both unique
and the same, and a line added to
.Pa /etc/group
to describe the new group.
.It Fl k Ar skeleton directory
gives the skeleton directory in which to find files
with which to populate the new user's home directory.
.It Fl L Ar login-class
This option sets the login class for the user being created.  See
.Xr login.conf 5
for more information on user login classes.
.It Fl m
create a new home directory for the new user.
.It Fl o
allow the new user to have a uid which is already in use for another user.
.It Fl p Ar password
specifies an already-encrypted password for the new user.
This password can then be changed by using the
.Xr chpass 1
utility.
.It Fl s Ar shell
specifies the login shell for the new user.
.It Fl u Ar uid
specifies a uid for the new user.
Boundaries for this value can be preset for all users
by using the
.Ar range
field in the
.Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf
file.
.It Fl v
enables verbose mode - explain the commands as they are executed.
.El
.Pp
Once the information has been verified,
.Nm
uses
.Xr pwd_mkdb 8
to update the user database.  This is run in the background, and,
at very large sites could take several minutes.  Until this update
is completed, the password file is unavailable for other updates
and the new information is not available to programs.
.Pp
The
.Nm
utility exits 0 on success, and \*[Gt]0 if an error occurs.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /etc/usermgmt.conf -compact
.It Pa /etc/usermgmt.conf
.It Pa /etc/skel/*
.It Pa /etc/login.conf
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr chpass 1 ,
.Xr group 5 ,
.Xr login.conf 5 ,
.Xr passwd 5 ,
.Xr usermgmt.conf 5 ,
.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 ,
.Xr user 8 ,
.Xr userdel 8 ,
.Xr usermod 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
utility first appeared in
.Nx 1.5 .
It is based on the
.Ar addnerd
package by the same author.
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
utility was written by Alistair G. Crooks (agc@netbsd.org).